More stories by Steampunk

On the east coast of North America, the farming of cranberries results in incredible vistas of colour. But this use of natural resources comes at a price...

Silke Baron

Australia is often portrayed in the media as being a country in which everything wants to kill you. For some reason, the land down under has a reputation for being home to dangerous animals that far surpass those of any other continent. Reflections of this are found in Australian culture – tales of fictional deadly animals such as ‘drop bears’ are often used to scare greenhorn tourists.

Tom Thai

In the arid north-west of the Indian subcontinent lies the state of Rajasthan. A land of lush forests as well as the mighty Thar Desert, Rajasthan contains one of the jewels of India – the Blue City of Jodhpur.

Micho.nico

Today the word 'jodhpur' is known worldwide as a style of trousers word by horse-riders and the military in years past.

Armin Hamm

During the so-called Dark Ages, Islam was seen by Europeans as a plague engulfing the East like a black shroud. Spread by fanatics with the Koran in one arm and a blood-stained scimitar in the other, Islam threatened to take Europe as it had the Orient, cutting off contact with all Christian lands within its expanding territory.

Andras Jancsik

As he hacked his way through the green hell, sweating profusely, the Dutchman noticed something about the nature of the vegetation that caused his heart to beat faster - for this was no ordered primary vegetation, but thick, tangled secondary jungle. This area had been cleared before - perhaps centuries before. The local legends were true.

Bernard Gagnon

If Sri Lanka wishes to improve its image – and its tourist trade – following its recent turbulent times, it could do worse than promote a national treasure such as the Sigirya. Towering above the surrounding plains of the Matale district in the heart of the country, this fortress and Buddhist monastery was carved from the hardened magma of what was once a volcano.

United Nations Photo

When the smoke clears and the last shells have fallen, some war zones will retain painful reminders of former unpleasantries.

Albert Augustin

During the bitter Yugoslav wars of the early-to-mid 1990's, national armies and irregular militias alike began to plant landmines throughout Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as an alternative to posting soldiers to guard borders.

In the third part of Environmental Graffiti’s Cryptozoology Series, Cian Gill examines the story behind Merfolk
World Horror Stories

On a warm evening in the summer of 1842, the English gentleman Dr. J. Griffin wandered alone on a deserted tropical beach. He swatted the bothersome insects that buzzed about his head, cursing the muggy weather which caused them to breed in such numbers at this time of year.

US Army

Since the dawn of time, men's creativity when it comes to hurting other men has known no bounds, and his fellow beasts have, on occasion, been called into this service. This has taken many different forms over the years.

In ancient times, the inhabitants of the Indus valley knew that the sight of a fully-equipped war elephant would terrify an enemy, as well as providing an unstoppable (to the weapons of the time) juggernaut with which to attack.

Rob Hogeslag

To Westerners of a certain age, Bosnia-Herzegovina is a country that still comes with many negative connotations. The memories of the Yugoslav wars of the mid-1990's continue to colour our perceptions of this Eastern European country, and not without some reason. For as the USSR crumbled, causing masses of newly-independent countries to appear squinting in the light, a similar though far bloodier process was taking place as the independently communist Yugoslavia broke up.

Ming Thein. Chemical communication among ants allows the slave-making process to take place

Cynics have long passed unfavourable comments on the similarities between human and insect societies: a person who carries out a repetitive, braindead job may be labelled a 'drone'; an entire organisation of such workers may be uncharitably likened to an ant hill.

Nicola Perscheid via Howard Cheng

Still a touchy subject to many today, Ernst Haeckel was as famous an exponent of evolution in his day as Charles Darwin himself. As the faith versus science wars first exploded across the western world, destroying cherished patterns of belief and altering forever the place of religion in society, he was one of the most visible and powerful speakers in favour of evolution.

Prof Gordon T. Taylor via Petaholmes

Within just about any soil and water source imaginable lie the diatoms – microscopic beings whose beauty is similar to that of abstract mathematics. Once favoured for their complex fractal shapes by infamous 19th century pioneering zoologist (and eugenicist!) Ernst Haeckel, diatoms have been a source of inspiration to both scientists and artists ever since.

Photo: Phil Taylor

An endless plain of grass, broken only by the occasional twisted form of the acacia tree. A scattering of ‘charismatic megafauna’. An isolated hill – a kopje – rising on the horizon. And an intense heat that bleaches everything to a burnt brown.